Sony VAIO J11 review

The keyboard and mouse are joined to the main unit by a pair of spindly wires, which strikes an incongruous note of cheapness, but they're both pleasingly ergonomic and responsive. The keyboard feels extremely solid, and bears a sensible range of shortcut keys, including a volume control and a sleep button.

At the top of the chassis, above the screen, you'll also find Sony's usual "assist" button, which launches the company's own-brand help and maintenance application, as well as a button to turn the display off and on with one click. That's a nice feature, especially if you want to use the J11 as a jukebox, but we're not sure about the wisdom of placing it right next to the power button.

Elsewhere on the case you'll find five USB ports, plus FireWire, wired Ethernet and card readers for SD and Memory Stick media. Add Bluetooth and 802.11n wireless and there's very little the J11 can't do.

The system does have one distinct weakness: graphics. The Nvidia GeForce 310M is a cut above the unused Intel GPU built into the processor, and it enables the system to play movies and the like without breaking a sweat; but it's won't allow you to play modern 3D games, managing just 13fps in our medium-detail Crysis benchmark. Only by stepping down to low settings did we get a playable 47fps.

Interestingly, though, PS3 owners can use Sony's bundled software to connect to the console over a home network and view stored photos and videos on the J11's screen. You can even use the keyboard and mouse to control it - a nice bit of platform integration.

We're also still waiting to be persuaded of the value of a touchscreen in Windows, and on that score nothing here is remotely eye opening. Sony bundles no touch-specific applications of its own, offering only the kid-friendly YouPaint finger-painting program (which is admittedly rather fun) and the pointless Windows Touch pack. To be fair, it's nice to be able to prod the icons in Media Center from time to time, but it's hardly a big deal, and fingerprints quickly become unpleasantly conspicuous on the glossy screen.

Still, if you don't demand sophisticated 3D graphics, the Sony VAIO J11 is a desirable system - a desktop with more than enough power for all your typical computing duties, compact enough to sit anywhere in your home and stylish enough to keep on display. It lacks the do-everything grandeur of the L11, and the sheer bang per buck value of the Acer Aspire Z5610, but it capably fills a niche in between the two.

Author: Darien Graham-Smith